The G3 Tour rolled into its second night in New York City with a tour de force performance that had the crowd on their feet for the entire night. Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani displayed every conceivable manner of guitar virtuosity, and the G3 team also had a couple of surprise guests on hand to lay down some additional licks.

I’ve looked forward to seeing Yngwie Malmsteen for 20 years and his performance did not disappoint. The set was highlighted by Yngwie’s lightning-fast fret board work on Trilogy Suite and Red House, a tribute to Jimi Hendrix complete with playing behind the head and with his teeth. Yngwie also provided some entertaining stage antics, including swinging his guitar around his head, frequent tosses of his axe to his tech for retuning and punting picks into the crowd. While Yngwie is capable of some extremely melodic and soulful playing, he has not overcome his propensity to allow his musicality to be overshadowed by guitar pyrotechnics. Nowhere was this more evident than in his performance of Icarus’ Dream Suite Op. 1, which was totally devoid of the emotional intensity he achieved on the Rising Force studio recording. My hope is that his exposure to Steve and Joe on this tour will be a positive influence in this direction.

I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that my only previous exposure to Steve Vai was the 1996 G3 tour and his work with David Lee Roth, and I was completely blown away by his performance on this night. Steve opened his set with a dynamite solo piece on his three-necked guitar, and exhibited nearly flawless musicianship throughout his set. Steve had a killer supporting cast, featuring the incredible Billy Sheehan on bass and Tony MacAlpine on guitar and keyboards. It would have been nice to see Billy and Tony turned loose a bit more, but I guess you can’t have everything.

Joe Satriani’s set featured the vintage Satch groove punctuated by stunning guitar licks. Satch’s set list was a virtual greatest hits, which may have disappointed some fans that have seen him many times. However, there certainly could be no gripes with the quality of his playing or his obvious enthusiasm on this night. His songs included Midnight, Always With Me Always With You, Flying in a Blue Dream, The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing, and Starry Night (the only song from his most recent album, Strange Beautiful Music). However, the highlight of the set was when Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci matched Satch note for note in Summer Song (except for the closing lead which Satch played on his own).

To cap the evening, Satch and Petrucci were joined on stage by Yngwie, Steve and surprise guest Neil Schon of Journey, who is a very good guitarist but seemed out of his league among this elite group. The five guitarists used Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and Little Wing, and Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World as the basis for their jam session with Yngwie, Steve and Satch, respectively, each taking a turn on vocals. Yngwie’s frequent trips backstage to get his guitar retuned were a slight distraction during the jam session, but I thought he did a good job of blending his unique style with Satch, Petrucci and Vai, who seemed to be very much on the same page as they unleashed mind-blowing riffs.

Overall, this was a terrific show for fans of guitar-driven rock, and any criticisms cited above were minor. However, the one significant disappointment with the show was the sound quality. I’ve been to plenty of loud concerts in my time (including Metallica, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest multiple times) and am not opposed to loud concerts, but I felt that on this night the bands sacrificed the sound quality for greater volume. Frequently, guitar licks were drowned out by the backing players (or the other guitarists, in the case of the jam session), and this is truly a shame when the quality of the playing is this high. The sound quality was also an issue on the 1996 G3 tour, and I hope it will be addressed on future G3 tours. Yngwie, Steve and Joe, thanks for a rockin’ night (I can’t wait for the DVD) and lets do it again soon!

Wow this years G3 was AWESOME . didnt really enjoy Yngwie that much the only reason why i enjoy his music is because i play classical guitar but, when it comes to playing guitar with soul that is a whole differnt story. .Vai was AWESOME , this was my first time seeing him perform and it wont be my last , he had great eye contact with the audience, VERY soulful and sentual. Joe, he never missed a beat ,i loved the hat he was wearing , i come to think of joe as an alien in a human suit ,vai as an angel, and Yngwie as mozart resurected i was suprised that John Petrucci from dream theatre performed with joe ,that was an interesting duet. all and all this show was great. Hopefully i can go to next years G3, Hmmmm, i wonder who is going to play with Joe and Steve next year . I Guess we have to wait and see :)

Peace

Tiffany

i've been a long time fan of joe satriani and excellent guitar-based music in general. i have seen satriani probably 8 times. the best being joe's halloween gig in san jose, ca in 1998 in support of the 'crystal planet' tour. either that gig or the time i saw him on 'the flying in a blue dream' tour, while i was still in high school, in 1989 at the place theater in albany. anyway, i hope you'll bear with me while i rant and make a few raves.

my overall feeling about this past tuesday night's show can be summed up as fair. there were good parts of all three guitarists' shows, all had highlights and low points. yngwie malmsteen had many decent parts. during parts of many songs there were times that i thought he'd embellish on some some bits, i'd be like 'yeah, i like what he's doing,' but then he would just go into a guitar frenzy full of mindless soloing that just was boring after a while. it seemed like he was jerking off, via the fretboard and i'm not into that.

steve vai was next. i certainly enjoyed the 'pat metheny-ish/steve reich counterpoint' echo, mulit-layer guitar intro. very creative. this was the first time i saw vai live. having tony macalpine and billy sheehan seemed to add some 'celebrity' to the gig, but macalpine was underutalized, as usual and sheehan's tone was not good, judging from my point of view. i was hoping for 'blue powder,' or 'the attitude' song, but got 'for the love of god,' instead. slight disappointment there. vai also seemed to got out of his way to 'wank' sort of doing a modern-day pete townshend.

in general, joe's gig was pretty solid. but personally, i was disappointed that joe only played ONE new song: starry night. since i didn't get to see any of the 'strange beautiful music' tour, i was expecting to hear more newer material. i got the feeling that satriani felt like he was playing to a brand new audience, unfamiliar with his catalog. i think live, he's overplayed 'satch boogie,' 'always with you, always with me,' and 'summer song.' maybe it's me, but i'm tired of hearing the same live tunes over and over.

i'd also have to say that nobody has come close to doing a respectful cover of voodoo child (slight return) since stevie ray vaughan, and although last night's version was good, it pales in comparison.

Recap

Yngwie Malmsteen - He was pretty good. Except, he seemed more concerned with show boating than actually playing. He played some of Hot On Your Heals, played Millennium.. A few others.. All I know is he kept swinging his guitar around his head, throwing it in the air and kicking picks.. Someone from the crowd called him a fat arse.. which I must admit, was pretty loud lol. I hope he didn't hear it. All and all, I give his performance a 6 outta 10

Steve Vai - The most amazing one at the show.. My head didn't stop bobbing through the whole thing. He used Flo for the night and his triple neck guitar. He played For The Love Of God, Whispering A Prayer, Juice, The Reaper and more. He simpley did perfect.. I was blown away by his performance and I am glade I was there to witness it. At one point.. Tony M., Billy S., Vai started playing off each others guitars.. It was pretty wicked. He recieves a 10 outta 10. Vai, you were perfect. Every note you played went directly into me. I definetly felt you on a higher level on November 11, 2003. I yelled out his name as soon as he came out.. I was the first to scream Vai's name.. OH YEAH! The crowd roared a moment after I yelled it.. Steve heard me I think!

Joe Satriani - He did pretty good. John Petrucci joined him on stage for Always With You, Always With Me and Summer song. Joe messed up once in Always With You, Always With Me.. but other than that, he did perfect. He also played Crystal Planet, The Extremist, and Flying In A Blue Dream. He did a great job! I was impressed extremley. He had the whole crowd going during The Extremist.. 8 outta 10.

John Petrucci - He did a great job. I thought his timing was great and his solo's were simpley amazing. I wish he was there for more than just the last 40 minutes. He gets a 8 outta 10 as well.

Jam Session - Vai, Satch, Yngwie, Petrucci, and Neil Schlon performed during this. I loved it.. They played Little Wing, Voodoo Child, and a Neil Young song(I can't remember its name for the life of me). The performance was flawless except for the fact that Malmsteen didn't play much of it.. Instead, he kept walking off stage and having something to drink. He played maybe 10 mins of the 30 minute Jam Session. I give the Jam Session a 9 outta 10.

At the End of the show, some kid tried to run onto the stage but a security was on him like white on rice and shoved him to the floor before he even got on.

An Amazing Show.. I was in Row E in the dead center. The show gets a 10 outta 10.